Poison Words By The Convalescence

“Conversation is a useless exchange of lies.” Or, we can say that toxic speech can be nothing more then poison words from one to another.

Keith Wampler (vocals), John Jones (guitar), Zac Lunsford (guitar), Spencer Kropog (bass), Justin Dubay (drums), and Katie McCrimmon (keys) have another release coming as The Convalescence. Poison Words will be here Apr 01, 2016 via 3Thirteen Entertainment Group/eOne Music and that’s no fool’s joke. The band will host their CD release party at Realm in Toledo, Ohio for their hometown fans.

As soon as the last note is played and the merch is all packed up, the band will head out for a relatively serious Poison Words Tour with support from So This Is Suffering and Beside The Silence.

Poison Words was engineered and produced by John Burke of Vibe Studios and was mixed and mastered by Chris Donaldson of Cryptopsy. The album is eleven tracks and is at about thirty-eight minutes long on the playtime.

Before we start the breakdown, feel free to read an older interview we did with the guys before they played Dirtfest 2015, here.

The first single off of the record is “Reflections,” and it shows clean vocals from Luke Walden on the assist. Keith’s vocals are low, grumbling sounds of a tomb gate dragged opened. Justin does an amazing job of hitting on this song. How he can play an entire set with this song’s changing timings and heavy percussive beats is beyond us.

The second to last song on the album is “Lifeless In The Waves.” Much like every song on this album, it’s harsh, dark, and completely fucking fabulous. The mental imagery is sure to be different for each listener, but in the end much like us, they’ll all wind up in the same place. The one redemption in the hopelessness of the song is a too brief vocal appearance of the keyboardist, Katie. Much like a small amount of peace in a place devoid of life, her play on the keys as well as singing adds a dreaming quality in a realm of nightmares.

The eighth track on the CD is “Surgical Sanity.” The pace is fast from the first foot out of the asylum. We, at the National Rock Review’s psychiatry office, are quite impressed with Spencer’s bass play on this track. Even with the great play on guitar from John and Zac, this offering’s signature is in the lower ranges. Sometimes you can hear a track and not notice the bass play. Not this song, it is in the blood of the writing, and we can’t be thankful enough someone still believes in the heaviness a good four/five string player, and can bring it out on a band’s vibe.

So, go pre-order the disc or head out to the release party and grab your copy right from the mayhem. If you’re there or grab your own slice of tortured existence, hit us up on Twitter or Facebook and let us know what you think of the band, the performance, or even who the hell we really need to know about or cover next.

About The Author

After getting the photo bug in the far, past days of black and white film, Erich continued to develop his eye for photography which lead to stops in the sporting, art, wedding, and eventually concert music worlds. Now, doing more writing for National Rock Review, he has entered into the journey of getting to know the artists and the industry, not just the faces on the other side of the lens.